The term “mobile tagging” refers to the process of providing data to mobile devices, commonly through the use of data (e.g., a Uniform Resource Locator or “URL”) encoded in a two-dimensional barcode. For example, addresses and/or URLs are commonly encoded in two-dimensional barcodes (e.g., QR Codes, Data Matrix codes, High Capacity Color Barcodes or “HCCBs,” and the like) that are printed in magazines, on signs, buses, business cards, or other object. Users with a camera phone equipped with an appropriate reader application can scan the image of the two-dimensional barcode to display text, contact information, connect to a wireless network, open a webpage in the phone's browser, and/or perform other operations. For example, the Android operating system for mobile devices (provided by Google Inc. of Menlo Park, Calif.) supports the use of QR codes by natively including a barcode scanner application on some device models and by including a browser that supports Uniform Resource Identifier (“URI”) redirection, which allows QR Codes to send metadata to existing applications on the device. The Symbian OS (provided by Nokia Corporation of Tempere, Finland) also includes a barcode scanner that is able to read QR Codes.
Generally speaking two-dimensional barcodes encode some sort of actionable text (or other data). For example, text representing contact information, when recognized by a barcode scanner application, could add the contact information to an address book on the device. Similarly, text representing an event or appointment, when recognized, could add the event or appointment to a calendar on the device; text representing geo-location information, when recognized, could open a map application on the device; and so on.
However, actionable text, such as the examples mentioned above, can only be acted on when the barcode scanner application understands the format of the actionable text encoded in the two-dimensional barcode. Some format standards exist and are commonly used for encoding actionable text in a two-dimensional barcode. For example, perhaps the most common actionable text encoded in two-dimensional barcodes is text that represents a URL, e.g. “http://google.com/m”. This string of text would be generally recognized as a URL by virtually all barcode scanner applications, and the resulting action would typically be to open the URL in a browser application on the device.
However, not all actionable text formats are so universally recognizable, and many different mobile device manufacturers and/or mobile device operating system providers may implement proprietary standards for formatting actionable text in two-dimensional barcodes. For example, mobile devices provided by NTT DoCoMo, Inc. of Tokyo, Japan may recognize URLs encoded using an alternate format, e.g. “MEBKM:TITLE:NTT DOCOMO;URL:http¥://i.nttdocomo.co.jp/f/;”. While mobile devices provided by NTT DoCoMo may recognize such a URI, other types of mobile device may not recognize such a URI.
Similarly, differing formal and/or de-facto standards may be used by different types of mobile devices for interpreting encoded contact information, event/appointment information, and other types of information. Consequently, it may be difficult or even impossible in some cases to provide a single two-dimensional barcode that will cause a variety of different types of mobile devices to perform a desired action.
In addition, different types of mobile devices may implement cameras or other scanning components that have differing capture capabilities. While various types of two-dimensional barcode may be able to encode several kilobytes (or more) of information, not all mobile devices may be able to properly recognize many densely-packed two-dimensional barcodes. For example, a first mobile device with an auto-focus macro lens may be able to capture and resolve a two-dimensional barcode encoded with several kilobytes of data, while a second mobile device, with a fixed-focus lens, may only be able to resolve as little as 200 bytes of data. Consequently, even if the first and second devices both supported the same actionable text format, the second device may still be incapable of acting on an information-dense two-dimensional barcode due to hardware limitations of the second device's capture components.